Milestone moment: Workshops kickstart process of building transformative leaders

– Weaving new knowledge and skills with safe spaces to create transformative leaders that inspire and influence

The Rise Up! Guide for Young Women’s Transformative Leadership has been redeveloped using World YWCA’s Feminist Consultation Methodology to ensure in an ever-changing world the tools and resources designed to support and strengthen transformative leadership journeys of young women are adaptable, scalable, and relevant to young women’s realities, contexts, and needs.

The YWCA’s RiseUp! young women’s leadership model is a peer-to-peer approach that is led by young women, for young women and supports them to claim their rights as part of a life-long transformative leadership journey that starts with self and moves beyond. RiseUp! supports young women to build knowledge and skills through a feminist values approach while fostering networks that offer individual support as well as a like-minded community to bring about transformative change that shifts power structures. This is achieved by weaving together core knowledge on Human Rights and feminist values and approaches as well as developing specific skills around leadership. Safe spaces and intergenerational dialogues underpin each stage of the Rise Up! transformative leadership journey and encourages leaders to work together, share knowledge and inspire all women, especially young women to use their voices and advocate together for social change.

“It’s been a constant learning, especially when listening to all the other leads share and deliver sessions using their country context. Although we’re diverse, we’re still connected, connected to the same cause to create a better world for women, young women, and girls” YWL Nepal

In the Asia- Pacific region, funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Rise Up! Phase IV program is in Year 12 of Implementation and is using Rise Up! Transformative leadership model as the central tool activity to work towards a goal where “Young Women are confident leaders who create safe spaces, networks and inspire other young women to build an inclusive society, empowered by intergenerational leadership within the YWCA movement”. One of many key activities of DFAT Rise Up! work is the training of trainers (TOT) on the Rise Up! guide in order to establish national master trainers who go on to established safe spaces in their own countries and deliver Rise Up! training. An approach designed to enable peer to peer mentoring and outreach between young women leaders at community, national and regional levels and work towards young women’s collective influence and peer based collective action through transformative leadership journeys.

In order to bring positive changes in society being a good leader is very needed. This ToT has shown various ways and different skills to improve to be a transformative leader. There I learned many technics from a different culture. It was a great opportunity for me” YWL Bangladesh

Taking place over four days in June, Young Women Leaders from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Myanmar participated in the first “Training of Trainer” of the redeveloped Rise Up! guide. Delivered by Rise Up! alumni and current World YWCA team members Nirmala Gurung and Naomi Woyengu, the training focused on providing an overview of the new guide, deep diving into specific transformative leadership learning resources and developing skills and knowledge on how to develop and deliver contextualised sessions in community. The Training place took place online, through a blend of webinar style learning on how to and breakout discussions. Following this, Young Women Leads further participated in practice sessionsexploredlearned through practice,, taking on a key skill or topic from the guide, contextualising it and delivering it to their peers. The purpose of this was to practice facilitation and to learn from each other in a safe space wherewere constructive feedback was exchanged in order to strengthen skills and approaches for in-country peer to peer work and training sessions.

To be a good leader, we must have mutual respect, sharing what we learn and what we have. The more we spread our love and knowledge the more we feel the stronger of sisterhood connectivity and wider the network.” YWL Myanmar

Training snapshot

Training days – Four days, 20-24 June 2022
Countries: Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Myanmar
Facilitators – 2
Session Hours – 24
Delivery mode – online via zoom
Delivery method – power points, interactive activities, and breakout rooms for discussion and chat box

Training overview summary

Overview and knowledge building
How to plan, implement and evaluate training sessions
Facilitation skills building

Homework – Guide Review and session research, design, and preparation

Practice session topics:

Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) – Nepal
Staying safe online – Thailand
Transformative leadership – Bangladesh
Finding reliable evidence and research – India
Peace and Justice – Myanmar

“To be a good leader, we must have mutual respect, sharing what we learn and what we have. The more we spread our love and knowledge the more we feel the stronger of sisterhood connectivity and wider the network.” YWL Myanmar

A strengthened guide more appropriate for evolving barriers to claiming rights in an ever changing social, political, and environmental world, now has its first Rise Up! master trainers. Through their planned work in year two of Rise Up! Phase IV young women through Rise Up! in- country training will now have the space, support, tools, and knowledge to ensure young women participants are an influential transformative force in championing young women’s rights and social change in their families, communities and beyond.

As an approach that builds young women’s individual and collective power to drive change RiseUp! is a core method for the World YWCA to achieve Goal 2035 that ‘100 million young women and girls transform power structures to create justice, gender equality and a world without violence and war, leading a sustainable YWCA movement, inclusive of all and a big leap towards Goal 2035 took place during the first June 2022 training. Following this milestone training for DFAT Rise Up! Phase IV further training and engagement on the Rise Up! guide with Young Women leads from Phase IV will continue over the coming weeks and months to ensure they are continuously supported as they commence in country sessions and ignite transformative leadership journeys across the region.